The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Campanula plant, botanical known as Campanula portenschlagiana Schult., commonly known as Dalmatian Bellflower, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘ROYAL’.
The new Campanula ‘ROYAL’ is a product of a planned breeding program conduced by the inventor, Jens Ingemann Pedersen, in Odense, Denmark. The objective of the breeding program is to develop a new Campanula cultivar with compact growth habit, large flowers and darker green leaves.
The new Campanula originated from a cross made in a controlled breeding program made by the inventor in 2002 in Odense, Denmark. The female or seed parent is Campanula portenschlagiana Schult. ‘MONIC’ (unpatented). The male parent or pollen parent is an unknown, unpatented Campanula portenschlagiana Schult. cultivar. The new Campanula ‘ROYAL’ was discovered and selected by the inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross in February of 2005 in a controlled environment in Odense, Denmark. The inventor selected ‘ROYAL’ on the basis of its compact plant habit and flowering habit.
Asexual reproduction of the new Campanula cultivar by vegetative cuttings was first performed in April of 2005 in Odense, Denmark, and has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new cultivar are firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction. The new cultivar reproduces true to type.